SMART Technologies Sync 2010 User manual

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SMART Sync™ 2010

User’s Guide

Windows® Operating Systems

Trademark Notice

SMART Sync, SMART Board, SMART Notebook, SMART Classroom Suite, smarttech and the SMART logo are

trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies ULC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows,

Windows Vista

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trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.All other third-party product and company

names are mentioned for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright Notice

transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language in any form by any means without the prior written

consent of SMART Technologies ULC. Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not

represent a commitment on the part of SMART.

Patents pending.

04/2010

Contents
Getting Started 1
Starting SMART Sync 2
Connecting to Students 3
Transferring Students to Your Class 5
Working with Teacher IDs and Classes 5
Navigating the User Interface 6
Customizing the User Interface 10
Working with Thumbnails 11
Working with Groups 13
Exiting SMART Sync 15
Observing and Controlling Students 17
Observing the Class 17
Observing a Student’s Desktop 20
Controlling a Student’s Desktop 22
Writing Over a Desktop 24
Capturing an Image of a Student’s Desktop 25
Locking Student Desktops 26
Disconnecting Students 27
Shutting Down, Logging Off and Restarting Students’ Computers 29
Broadcasting and Communicating 31
Broadcasting 32
Sending an Announcement 36
Conducting a Poll 37
Sharing Media 37
Sharing a Web Page 40
Organizing Collaboration 43
Starting Collaborative Assignments 43
Completing Collaborative Assignments 44
Monitoring Collaborative Assignments 46
Viewing Completed Assignments 47
Answering Questions 49
Viewing and Answering Questions 49
Deleting a Question without Answering 50
Saving the Question History 51

i i
Clearing the Question History 51
Chatting 53
Chatting with Students 53
Saving the Chat History 55
Clearing the Chat History 55
Enabling and Disabling Student Chat 56
Sending and Receiving Files 59
Sending Files to Students 59
Receiving Files from a Student 61
Clearing Files from the File List 61
Controlling Access to Applications 63
Creating and Using Application Blocking Rules 63
Starting and Closing Applications 68
Controlling Access to the Internet 73
Blocking Internet Access 73
Creating and Using Internet Blocking Rules 74
Working with Other Teachers and Teacher Aides 79
Controlling Teacher Aides 79
Disconnecting Teacher Aides 80
Joining a Class as a Teacher Aide 80
Configuring SMART Sync Teacher 83
Setting the Language 84
Connecting to SMART Sync Class List Server 85
Setting the Lock-Out Message 87
Setting the Optimization Preferences 88
Setting the Control Preferences 89
Setting the Broadcast Preferences 90
Setting the Digital Ink’s Appearance 91
Setting the File Transfer Preferences 92
Setting a User Authentication Password 93
Setting the Advanced Preferences 94
Setting the Logging Preferences 99
Sending Feedback to SMART 101
Customer Support 103
Online Information and Support 103
Training 103
Technical Support 103
General Inquires 104
| C O N T E N T S

i i i

Registration 104

Index 105

| C O N T E N T S

Getting Started

Starting SMART Sync 2

Connecting to Students 3

Transferring Students to Your Class 5

Working with Teacher IDs and Classes 5

Navigating the User Interface 6

Main Toolbar and Menus 8

Group Tabs 8

Students List 9

Customizing the User Interface 10

Showing or Hiding Toolbars 10

Setting the Selection Method 10

Working with Thumbnails 11

Rearranging Thumbnails 11

Resizing Thumbnails 12

Changing Thumbnail Information 12

Working with Groups 13

Changing the Type of Class 13

Creating, Editing and Deleting Groups 14

Exiting SMART Sync 15

With SMART Sync™ classroom management software, you can manage your

classroom and communicate with your students without leaving your computer.

SMART Sync lets you observe and control your students’ computers using the

Thumbnails view, which displays real-time images of your students’ computer desktops.

You can customize this view’s appearance. In addition to viewing the desktops, you can

capture snapshots of students’ screens, take control of students’ desktops, temporarily

lock students’ computers, remotely shut down students’ computers, block Internet

access and block the use of specific applications.

You can also use SMART Sync to communicate with your entire class, a group of

students or an individual student. You can broadcast your desktop, conduct polls, send

Chapter 1

2

messages to students and receive replies, send files to your students, organize student

collaboration and more.

If you’re using SMART Sync with a SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard, you can

write notes using a pen tray pen and your students will see your notes on their desktops.

If you’re working at a computer, you can write notes using the tools in SMART Sync.

Starting SMART Sync

When you first start SMART Sync, you create a teacher ID and class. Students can then

connect to the class (see Connecting to Students on next page).

Every class is unique. The only similarity between two classes may be the room in

which they’re taught. Everything else may be different, including the students, the

seating plan and more.

Teachers and classes can be administered, which means they’re centrally defined in a

SMART School file (see Connecting to SMART Sync Class List Server on page 85), or

non-administered, which means they’re defined in your computer's installation of

SMART Sync.

l If you select a non-administered class when you start SMART Sync, you can

save changes to your class at any time.

l If you select an administered class, you can’t save changes to the original file, but

you can save it with a new name.

N O T E

(Administered) appears beside administered classes in the Welcome to SMART

Sync dialog box.

To create a new teacher ID 1. Double-click the SMART Sync Teacher 2010 icon on your desktop.

The SMART Sync window and the Welcome to SMART Sync dialog box appear.

2. Type the teacher ID in the Teacher box.

N O T E

The teacher ID can’t contain the following characters: \ / : * ? < > | "

3. Click OK.

A message appears, asking if you want to create a new teacher ID.

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3

4. Click Yes.

SMART Sync displays the Thumbnails view and the All Computers tab.

5. Connect to students (see Connecting to Students below), and then save the class

(see Working with Teacher IDs and Classes on page 5).

To select an existing

teacher ID

1. Double-click the SMART Sync Teacher 2010 icon on your desktop.

The SMART Sync window and the Welcome to SMART Sync dialog box appears.

2. Select a teacher ID from the Teacher drop-down list.

3. Select an existing class in the Class list.

OR

Select New Class in the Class list to create a new class.

4. Click OK.

SMART Sync displays the Thumbnails view and the All Computers tab.

5. Connect to students (see Connecting to Students below).

If you created a new class in step 3, save it (see Working with Teacher IDs and

Classes on page 5).

Connecting to Students

You or your system administrator can install SMART Sync Student on students’

computers in one of two modes:

Mode Description

Visible The user interface is visible to students.

Hidden The user interface is hidden from students.

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4

You or your system administrator then selects a connection option depending on the

chosen mode:

Connection Option Description Visible

Mode

Hidden

Mode

Allows the student to

select from a list of

available teachers

Students must manually connect

to the correct teacher ID.

T I P

If teacher discovery is

available, students can

view the IDs of teachers

currently logged on to

SMART Sync Teacher in

a drop-down list (see page

85).

Yes No

Automatically

connects with this

Teacher ID

Students automatically connect

to a teacherID.

Yes Yes

Automatically

connects with this

hostname or IP

address

Students automatically connect

to a teacher through the host

name or IP address. (Host names

and IPaddresses identify

computers on a network.)

Yes Yes

Uses this Class List

Server hostname or IP

address

You connect to your students

based on the information in a

SMART School file (see

Connecting to SMART Sync

Class List Server on page 85).

For information on creating and

maintaining SMART School files,

see document 144150.

Yes Yes

N O T E

l If a student with a version of SMART Sync Student that is incompatible

with your version of SMART Sync Teacher attempts to connect to your

class, warning messages appear on the student’s screen and your screen.

l In Hidden mode, students can’t ask questions, initiate chat, send files or

complete other tasks requiring the SMART Sync Student user interface.

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5

Transferring Students to Your Class

If you connect to students through SMART Sync Class List Server, you can transfer

students connected to other teachers’ classes to your class.

N O T E

This feature is only available if you use SMART Sync Class List Server and if

one or more other teachers currently have a class running on SMART Sync Class

List Server.

To transfer students to

your class

1. Select Connection > Get Missing Students from Other Teachers.

The SMART Sync – Class List Connection dialog box appears. This dialog box

shows all students connected to other teachers through SMART Sync Class List

Server and the teachers they’re connected to.

2. Select the check boxes of the students you want to transfer to your class.

T I P

You can select all students in the list by clicking Select All.

3. Click Transfer.

SMART Sync transfers the selected students to your class.

Working with Teacher IDs and Classes

You can change to a different teacher ID or select another class at any time, and the

customized profile loads automatically.

If additional students join your class or you reorganize your groups, you may want to

save the current class.

To change the teacher ID

or class

1. Select File > Change Teacher or Class.

The Teacher and Class Selection dialog box appears, displaying your current

teacher ID.

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6

2. Select the teacher ID you want from the list.

OR

Clear the current teacher ID and enter another one.

3. Select the class you want.

4. Click OK.

The SMART Sync title bar changes to reflect the teacher ID and class.

Students connected to the previous teacher ID receive a message asking them if

they want to switch to the new teacher ID. They must click Yes to connect to the

new teacher ID.

To save a

non-administered class

Select File > Save Class.

To save an administered

class or to save a class

with a new name

1. Select File > Save Class As.

A dialog box appears.

2. Type a new class name, and then click Save.

Navigating the User Interface

The SMART Sync user interface consists of four components:

l Views

l Main toolbar and menu

l Group tabs

l Students list

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7

Views

Each view contains a subset of the features in SMART Sync:

View Description

Thumbnails When you start SMART Sync, you see thumbnails (miniature

images) of the connected students’ desktops. These thumbnails

change in real time (though slightly delayed) with every instance of

student input. You can customize the appearance of the Thumbnails

view by editing thumbnail names, changing thumbnail sizes and

rearranging the thumbnails.

In the Thumbnails view, you can:

l

Observe the class

l

Observe and take control of a student’s desktop

l

Broadcast your desktop

l

Broadcast a student’s desktop

l

Capture an image of a student’s desktop

l

Share media files

l

Share a web page

l

Shut down, log off or restart a student’s computer

Collaboration Using the Collaboration view, you can organize and monitor

collaborative assignments. You can separate your class into groups

of two or three, distribute an assignment for them to complete as a

group and view their progress.

Questions Using the Questions view, you can view, respond to and save your

students’ questions.

Chat Using SMART Sync, you can chat with your whole class, a specific

group or selected students. The Chat view displays all the chat

messages, including messages between students.

In the Chat view, you can:

l

Chat with the entire class or selected groups

l

Control student chat

l

Save the current chat session as a text file

l

Clear the chat history

| C H A P T E R 1 – G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

8

View Description

File Transfer Using the File Transfer view, you can send files to your class, to a

group or to selected students and receive files from them. The view is

divided into Sent Files, which lists the files you’ve sent to students,

and Received Files, which lists the files you’ve received from

students.

In the File Transfer view, you can also:

l

Cancel a file transfer

l

Open a sent file

l

Open a received file

l

Clear a file from the list

Applications Using the Applications view, you can block applications on your

students’ computers, giving you complete control over the

applications your students can use. You can also remotely start and

close applications on your students’ computers.

Internet Using the Internet view, you can block students from using specified

websites and pages.

N O T E

In all views, you can lock student desktops, block Internet access, send an

announcement and conduct a poll.

Main Toolbar and Menus

Although you can access some buttons and menu options in any view, some buttons

and menu options are specific to a particular view. For example, the

Shut Down button appears only in the Thumbnails view.

When you select a view, the toolbar buttons and menu options change to the buttons and

options appropriate for that view.

Group Tabs

If you want to interact with some students but not with the entire class, you can create

groups. Each time you create a group, SMART Sync creates a tab for the new group

(see Working with Groups on page 13).

Depending on your viewing options, the main tab is named All Computers or

All Students.

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9

Students List

The students list appears on the right side of the interface when you’re in the Questions,

Chat, File Transfer, Applications or Internet view.

N O T E

The Thumbnails view and the Collaboration view don’t include the students list.

You can get the same information from the students’ thumbnails.

The students list includes:

l All the currently connected students (if you’re viewing the All Students or All

Computers tab).

l All the currently connected students in a group (if you’re viewing a group’s tab).

When you select one or more students in the students list, you can interact with the

selected students using SMART Sync features, including locking students’ desktops,

broadcasting, chatting, sending and receiving files, conducting polls and more.

The symbol next to each student’s name indicates the student’s status. The symbols

appear below in order of most important status (Disconnected) to the least important

(Connected).

Symbol Status Description

Disconnected The student is disconnected.

Locked Out The student is locked out.

Vote The student has yet to respond to a vote.

Vote Yes The student has responded affirmatively to a

vote.

Vote No The student has responded negatively to a vote.

Question The student has asked a question.

Chat The student has received a new chat message.

Application Block The student is blocked from using one or more

applications.

Internet Block The student is blocked from using the Internet.

Connected The student is connected.

When more than one status applies to a student, the most important symbol appears.

For example, if a student is both connected and locked out, the Locked Out symbol

displays beside the student’s name.

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1 0

Customizing the User Interface

You can customize SMART Sync’s user interface following the instructions in this

section.

Showing or Hiding Toolbars

You can show or hide the toolbars to customize the SMART Sync interface.

To show or hide the

main toolbar

Select View > Toolbars > Main.

To show or hide the

Views icons

Select View > Toolbars > View.

Setting the Selection Method

You can change SMART Sync’s selection method to suit your preferences. The two

available methods are Standard and Sticky.

In Standard selection:

l If you click two items, you select only the second item.

l If you hold the CTRL key and click two items, you select both items.

l If you hold the SHIFT key and click two items, you select both items and every

item between the two.

In Sticky selection:

l If you click two items, you select both items.

l If you click a selected item, you clear the selection.

l Holding the CTRL or SHIFT keys has no effect.

T I P

If you’re using a SMART Board interactive whiteboard, it’s easier to select and

clear selections using the Sticky selection method.

| C H A P T E R 1 – G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

1 1

To set the selection

method to Standard

Select Options > Selection Types > Standard Selection.

To set the selection

method to Sticky

Select Options > Selection Types > Sticky Selection.

Working with Thumbnails

You can rearrange, resize and change the information of the thumbnails in the

Thumbnails view.

Rearranging Thumbnails

By default, the student thumbnails are arranged alphabetically in the Thumbnails view.

However, you can rearrange the thumbnails in any way you like. For example, you can

rearrange them to reflect the room’s seating plan for all students or groups.

To rearrange thumbnails

in a customized order

1.

Click Thumbnails .

The Thumbnails view appears.

2. Click All Computers or All Students to rearrange the thumbnails for the class.

OR

Click a group’s tab to rearrange the thumbnails for the group.

3. Make sure View > Thumbnail Arrangement > Align to Grid isn’t selected, and

then click and drag the thumbnails vertically or horizontally.

N O T E

If a new student joins the class or group, that student’s thumbnail appears

at the end of the thumbnail arrangement.

To rearrange thumbnails

alphabetically

1.

Click Thumbnails .

The Thumbnails view appears.

2. Click All Computers or All Students to rearrange the thumbnails for the class.

OR

Click a group’s tab to rearrange the thumbnails for the group.

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1 2

3. Select View > Thumbnail Arrangement > Alphabetical Ordering.

The thumbnails are rearranged in alphabetical order starting at the upper left

corner.

N O T E

If a new student joins the class or group, that student’s thumbnail appears

in alphabetical order in the thumbnail arrangement.

Resizing Thumbnails

There are advantages and disadvantages to increasing the size of the thumbnails. If you

make them larger, it’s easier to see details, but you have to scroll to view some of the

thumbnails. If you make them smaller, you can view more of them without having to

scroll, but it’s difficult to see details.

To resize thumbnails 1.

Click Thumbnails .

The Thumbnails view appears.

2. Select View > Thumbnail Size, and then select one of the following options:

o

Very Large (two thumbnails wide)

o

Large (three thumbnails wide)

o

Medium (four thumbnails wide)

o

Small (five thumbnails wide)

o

Very Small (six thumbnails wide)

o

Best Fit (automatically adjusts the thumbnail display to the best

arrangement)

Changing Thumbnail Information

When you’re monitoring a class or group in the Thumbnails view, you can display the

student’s logon ID, student ID or name below each thumbnail.

The Collaboration view also displays this information.

| C H A P T E R 1 – G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

1 3

To change thumbnail

information

1.

Click Thumbnails .

The Thumbnails view appears.

2. Select View > Thumbnail Name/Description.

3. Select Logon ID, Student ID or Student Name.

Working with Groups

If you want to interact with some students but not the entire class, you can create

groups.

When you create a group, SMART Sync creates a tab for the group. Depending on your

viewing options, the default group tab is named All Computers or All Students.

When you select a group’s tab, you can interact with the members of that group. For

example, you can lock the group’s desktops, broadcast your desktop to the group, chat

with the group, send a file to the group, conduct a poll of the group and more.

By creating groups, you can tailor specific actions to a certain section of the class. For

example, you can create a group made up of students who are easily distracted, and

then monitor the computer screens of that group.

You can also edit the members of existing groups and delete groups that you no longer

need.

Changing the Type of Class

Depending on your viewing options, the default group tab is named All Computers or All

Students. The All Computers group includes every computer in your lab and names the

thumbnails using the computer name. The All Students group includes every student in

your class and names the thumbnails using the student ID.

To change from a lab

to a class

Select View > View Class As > Student Class List.

To change from a class

to a lab

Select View > View Class As > Computer Lab.

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1 4

Creating, Editing and Deleting Groups

To create a group

1. Select Edit > Add Group.

The New Group dialog box appears.

2. Type a name for the group in the Group name box.

3. Optionally, select the Allow students to join this group on their own check

box to allow students to join or leave this group.

N O T E

If you don’t select this check box, only you can add or remove students

from the group.

4. Click OK.

The group appears as a new tab in the main SMART Sync window.

To edit a group 1. Select the group’s tab.

2. Select Edit > Modify Group.

The Edit New Group dialog box appears.

3. Optionally, change the name of the group in the Name box.

4. Optionally, add students to or remove them from the group:

o

To add a student, select the student’s name in the Students list, and then

click Add.

o

To remove a student, select the student’s name in the Group Members list,

and then click Remove.

5. Optionally, select the Allow students to join this group on their own check

box to allow students to join or leave this group.

N O T E

If you don’t select this check box, only you can add or remove students

from the group.

6. Click OK.

| C H A P T E R 1 – G E T T I N G S T A R T E D

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